Holocaust Laws Essay

The Holocaust was one of the darkest events in world history. In total, more than 6 million Jews were killed as well as many others. Life before the Holocaust, however, started it all. Anti-semitism played a big role and created violent tension between the Jews and the Germans. When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany he made an anti- Semitism an official government policy. Although Jewish life before the Holocaust was peaceful at first, discrimination erupted which promoted anti- semitism, enacted laws, and forced Jews into ghettos. In the 1800s before the Holocaust, discrimination against Jews started to become a problem in the country of Germany. The Germans began to isolate the Jewish people because of their race rather and religious

Another key point to make is that Adolf Hitler enacted several laws to enforce Jewish discrimination and injustice. There were two laws that had the most influence and effect and they are The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. Engel adds on with a description of the two laws and what they promote: “Both laws limited the rights of Jewish people and sought to keep Jews separate from other residents of Germany”(Nuremberg Laws). This quote summarizes the two main laws that Adolf Hitler enacted and how they affected Jewish culture.

The main purpose of the The Reich Citizenship Law was to state that only people of German or related blood could be German citizens. The Jewish Virtual Library states what else the law enacted: The Reich Citizenship Law stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between "Reich citizens " and "nationals” (Jewish Library). This quote shows the main purposes of the law and what it did to Jews. As stated before, these laws were meant to segregate Jews and discriminate against them. These laws simply became a part of all Jews and it eventually became

Another big part of Jewish life before the Holocaust was the fact that almost all Jews were forced to live in ghettos. The biggest ghetto in Germany at the time was called Warsaw.Warsaw ghetto was a section of Poland where Nazi Germany held Jewish people during and before World War II (1939-1945). Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. The ghetto there was the largest of many set up by Germany throughout eastern Europe. Bernbaum explains what happened at the ghetto and what actions were carried out: “The Nazis followed many brutal policies rooted in anti-semitism which is prejudice against Jews. They forced East European Jews into ghettos and deprived them of basic human rights” (Berenbaum). The Nazis eventually sent nearly all the ghetto residents to death camps. The mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis is known as the Holocaust. Before the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, more than 350,000 Jews lived in Warsaw. It was the largest Jewish community in Europe. When Warsaw surrendered to Germany in late September the Nazis then enforced a number of anti-Jewish